GROVE AVE PRESENTS

GROWTH &
PRODUCTIVITY
15 Principles to Help You Achieve More

WELTON CHANG
1
Disclaimer

The information contained in this guide is for informational purposes only.

I am not a lawyer, doctor, or an accountant. Any legal or financial advice
that I give is my opinion based on my own experience. You should always
seek the advice of a professional before acting on something that I have
published or recommended. Any amount of earnings disclosed in this
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For Meredith

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CONTENTS
Introduction 7

Changing Your Everyday Behavior

Principle 1: Proper planning and organization sets the table for productivity 10
Principle 2: Set daily goals and split up larger tasks into micro-tasks 17
Principle 3: Stay in shape efficiently 22

Getting Better Over Time

Principle 4: Understand yourself to find your motivation 27
Principle 5: Practice and grit make things easier and help you achieve flow 32
Principle 6: Track your time use and shift it towards productive things 35
Principle 7: Self-control doesnt come easy -- set yourself up for success 39

Set Yourself Up to Be Successful

Principle 8: Streamline your life by automating 43
Principle 9: Control and optimize your sensory environment 45

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Cut Out the Noise and Focus
Principle 10: Be efficient with your communications 50
Principle 11: Avoid unnecessary meetings 52
Principle 12: Do more than one thing at once, but know the limits of multitasking 54
Principle 13: Know when to take a break, when to walk away, and when to relax 57
Principle 14: Understanding and Overcoming Procrastination 60

The Big One

Principle 15: Never give up! Work smarter AND harder. 66

Summary 70
Thank You 74
Further Reading and Listening 75
Sources 78

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About the Author
Welton Chang is Grove Aves resident productivity guru.
When not thinking about how to get the most out of life,
he is a psychology PhD student at the University of Penn-
sylvania. From 2005-2014, he served as an officer in the
U.S. Army and at the Department of Defense. He received
a B.A. from Dartmouth College, an M.A. from Georgetown
University, and an M.A. from the University of Pennsylva-
nia. In his spare time, he writes op-eds, blogs on Buys With
Friends, manages several properties on the East Coast,
loses money day-trading in the stock market, scopes out
ventures to invest in, and starts investment clubs with his
family and friends. He splits his time between Philadelphia
and Washington, DC with his wife Meredith and two cats,
Percy and Portia. Follow him on Twitter: @weltonchang

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Introduction
Hi, my name is Welton Chang. Im working on a psychol-
ogy PhD in Philadelphia, the home of Rocky and cheese-
steaks. In a past life, I served as an Army officer and
worked at the Defense Department. Philly, the Army, the
Pentagon: these places and institutions represent the
epitome of hard work and getting stuff done. Along the
way, while working in Iraq and battling the bureaucracy in
Washington, I picked up a few principles to supercharge
my own productivity. I want to pass along these principles
to you because boosting productivity is something we
need to do these days just to survive.

One thing that has stuck with me all these years is the
adage hard work beats talent when talent doesnt work
hard. Just look at Tom Brady, one of the winningest quar-
terbacks of all time. Did you know he was drafted in the
sixth round after 198 other football players? Bradys dis-
cipline and focus is the stuff of legend. Also consider JK
Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. At one point
in her life she was divorced, unemployed, and living in
poverty. Today she is one of the wealthiest women in the
world and a philanthropist who hasnt forgotten her roots.
Brady and Rowling could have easily given up or played
down to the expectations everyone had for them. But not
only did they ignore the critics and naysayers: they thrived.

Not very many people are naturally endowed with super-

human gifts. For the rest of us, we have to make do with
7
what we have. Im not suggesting that by reading this
book youll suddenly win a Super Bowl or write a best-
selling book. Far from it. But you can excel with what you
have, by working hard and by following some of the prin-
ciples I detail in the following pages. Im not saying that
positive thoughts and optimism dont matter - they do, but
they are no panacea for your productivity problems. At the
end of the day, hard work is what sees us through. And
trust me - following through on some of these principles is
going to require tough work. Its going to be a challenge,
no doubt about it.

I think youll find many of these tactics and techniques

helpful. No one becomes incredibly productive overnight.
Learning to be productive requires experience, experi-
mentation, and most of all putting around yourself the
structure necessary for success. By passing along the
things Ive learned, I hope itll shorten your own experi-
mental timeline. Heed these principles and they will help
you supercharge your productivity.

Stay hungry,
Welton

8
 SECTION ONE

Changing
Your Everyday
Behavior

9
Principle 1: Proper planning
and organization sets the
table for productivity
Have you ever heard the phrase work smarter,
not harder? Keep that phrase in mind while youre
reading this e-book. Theres a place for brute force
approaches to productivity, but you generally cant
sustain that for long. In order to become more pro-
ductive, you have to make a greater return for your
attention, labor, and effort investments.

So dont just dive blindly in an attempt to boost your

productivity. Having a good plan is essential to being
productive. Preparation is the key to success in many
domains. Becoming more productive is no different.
Preparing for each day, each project, and each en-
deavor in a disciplined fashion will help you set the
conditions for being more productive and ultimately
for being successful. Planning means getting all the
materials you need to succeed in place before you
need them. It means anticipating problems in advance
so that when you encounter them youll have a fix in
mind or in place right away.

Organization, whether it be the file structure on your

10
computer or the way you maintain written notes,
means being able to call on the things and knowl-
edge you need in a timely manner. I cant tell you how
many times Ive gotten frantic emails or calls from
colleagues who misplaced a file or cant remember
something and need to be reminded. Keeping your-
self organized and having a system prevents these
kinds of pseudo-emergencies from cropping up.

First, I use backwards planning to make sure I have

enough time to accomplish what I need to accom-
plish. This is a technique I picked up in the Army. Start
with the deadline and work incrementally from there,
putting in reasonable time estimates for the critical
things you need to get done as you move towards
your goal. If you cant make the work fit within the
deadline, then you know that the deadline isnt rea-
sonable and that you have to adjust it. You do this be-
fore you have to push the deadline at the last minute.

Second, I schedule my entire day. Some people are

obligated to do this because that is what their work-
place demands. But for many knowledge workers and
the millions of freelance workers out there, your day
is your day. How much work you get done is entirely
dependent on you and your willpower. So, what bet-
ter way of getting yourself up to the task than to put
all of the first down markers on the field before you
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have to reach them? Scheduling your entire day also
means that youll have some motivation to hit all of
those interior deadlines. This ultimately makes the
wider task and bigger deadlines seem less dreadful
and insurmountable.

Third, using lists and Gantt charts are some of the

easier ways to get and stay organized. There are lots
of tools out there, but probably none better and more
useful than a set of index cards. Generally, I write
down tasks that I dont immediately finish and need
to tackle later on a card (it gets filled up during the
day) and as I get through them, Ill satisfyingly cross
the item off my list. For longer term tracking, I use
Google Keep for my lists, tracking the things I need to
get done, categorized by project. It works well across
platforms (it has an iOS app version and web-accessi-
ble interface) and I like that it is no-frill and barebones.
Im able to use the Keep app to categorize project-
related checklists (I upload pictures for easy project
identification) and it keeps track of the project tasks
Ive finished. Ive used Evernote in the past, but ulti-
mately it felt a bit too clunky for me to use, especially
if I simply wanted to pull up a list and cross off an
item. I still do keep scanned documents there, but for
me, Google Keep works better than Evernote.

Before starting a big project, Ill sketch out the broad

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outlines of it, to either socialize the ideas with team-
mates or to keep myself on track. Want to write a
novel? Or learn to dunk a basketball? It is much hard-
er to accomplish these things if you dont plan and
prepare. Gantt charts help you keep all of your lines
of effort in order and on time.

One other trick Ive learned is to prepare for the

following work-day by laying out all of my clothes,
preparing my backpacks, and preparing my food
and coffee for the following day the night before. Im
sure many others do this too. I also keep two back-
packs and a suitcase permanently packed, one for
classwork, one for the gym, and one for traveling.
This saves me a lot of time in case last minute travel
comes up and gets me out the door sooner on a
regular basis.

A few other tricks Ive learned in terms of preparing

for a day involve food. I enjoy snacking throughout
the day and also grabbing the occasional coffee. Like
everyone else I cant resist the offer of a brownie from
a colleague or if everyone is headed out to Starbucks
for a mid-afternoon pick me up. But this takes time,
breaks the flow of concentration, and can get in the
way of getting stuff done. You will eventually pay for it
with time at the end of the daywhen everyone else
is headed out the door, youll be stuck there mulling
13
over your poor life choices.

To get around this but still have the ability to snack, I

prepare a few GoStak bottles worth of snacks that I
buy in bulk (roasted cashews, roasted chickpeas, gra-
nola, pumpkin seeds) and grab the bottles on the way
out the door. I usually pack three of these per week,
on Sunday night. This way I always have a ready sup-
ply of snacks in my bag. The bottles are pretty much
airtight and keep the snacks fresh, in case I find my-
self carrying them around for a while. The other thing
I do (well actually, my lovely wife does) is use the
crockpot to cook multiple meals like beef stew that
will keep for multiple nights. This is usually good for a
few nights worth of dinners and really cuts down on
meal prep time during the week when time is really
precious. Having some good Tupperware containers
(get the glass ones, they hold up better in the dish-
washer and are more easily microwaved) is the real
key to making the multiple dinners work.

The final trick that I use to make sure Im well pre-

pared for the day and week is to review what I need
to do the following day. While I tell myself that I should
do this the night before, it inevitably ends up being
in the morning. Part of my morning routine involves
taking my allergy meds, listening to the Flash News
update and weather on the Amazon Echo, and check-
14
ing my calendar to make sure I dont miss anything. I
use the Sortd Chrome plug-in for Gmail. Sortd allows
me to prioritize tasks by funneling emails into prior-
ity lists (lots of my taskings come through email) and
ensure that I dont forget I didnt manage to finish the
night before.

In terms of my daily routine, I try to keep things are

routine as possible, to save my mental bandwidth for
tougher and more meaningful challenges. I person-
ally love my cheap Hamilton Beach coffee maker,
because the back detaches and can be filled directly
in the sink, unlike other models. Saves me time pour-
ing water and I never have a spill to clean up. I also
wear pretty much the same thing each day -- khakis,
slacks, and solid, dark colored collared or regular
shirts. I really love Outlier clothing and Merrell boots
because they are versatile, can be worn multiple
days without washing, and dont look out of place in
a meeting room or when traveling. When I wore a suit
to work every day for nearly five years, I had five suits
on rotation, one for each day of the week. I also had
about twenty pre-arranged shirt-tie combinations. I re-
ally like Banana Republics no wrinkle shirts. Ironing is
one chore I dont mind not doing. Wearing the same
thing to work is a cognitive offloading trick that many
people use. Not having to worry these small choices
makes life easier. Guess who else does this? Presi-
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dent Obama and Mark Zuckerberg.

PRINCIPLE 1 SUMMARY
Use backwards planning to ensure you can get
stuff done on time.
Use schedules, lists, and Gantt charts to keep
yourself organized and disciplined.
During particularly busy weeks, prep snacks and
dinners to cut down on meal prep time.
Check tomorrows schedule the night before to
ensure youre properly prioritized.
Prepare for each day consistently to reduce
your morning cognitive load.

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Principle 2: Set daily goals
and split up larger tasks into
micro-tasks
This principle works hand-in-hand with proper plan-
ning. I usually assign myself one daily goal related to
a core work priority. For example: write five pages
of my dissertation prospectus or design experiment
for investigating probabilistic posturing. Staying on
task has been as simple as making sure I keep that
one goal in mind. By setting a key goal for each day, I
know what I need to focus on, and even more impor-
tantly, I know what I can ignore.

Knowing what and how to prioritize is critical to ensur-

ing that your daily goal gets done. Many of us suffer
from the tyranny of the e-mail inbox. But you really
do have to stop and ask yourself why youre behold-
en to some small box inside a small screen. Instead
of letting the tiny inbox tell me what to do, I choose
to let the small stuff that comes across the desk dur-
ing the day fall off in the interest of accomplishing the
core task. If it is really that important -- someone will
call you. That urgent, time-sensitive thing is probably
not urgent and time-sensitive to you. If you never ac-
complish the tasks that keep your life going, and that

17
keep you marching towards your goals, no one is go-
ing to accomplish it for you. Do this for long enough
and pretty soon youll be very far away from where
you wanted to be. Ultimately, this means prioritizing
yourself over the demands (which are sometimes un-
reasonable) of others.

Have you ever heard the saying, if you dont know

where youre going, any way will get you there? I
firmly believe that. I also firmly believe that people
who get derailed and sidetracked when they are
working forget their goals. Keep that daily goal in firm
focus and you wont go wrong. Youll be able to look
back on 365 days of work at the end of the year and
say: I accomplished 365 goals. Lots of people dont
accomplish that much in their LIFETIME.

Breaking up a larger task into a smaller tasks, in the

form of a list or an outline, is also a really useful tool.
Would you make your grocery list by writing buy gro-
ceries? No, youd want to write out the specific things
you need. So why would you approach life less dili-
gently than youd approach a grocery list? Youll never
finish writing your dissertation, novel, or finishing the
big project if you put it on your to do list as, write dis-
sertation or work on project. Those big ticket items
are more like overarching goals. If you were planning
to work on a project, you might break it into smaller
18
subtasks such as create project schedule, or deter-
mine delegation plan, or outline project presenta-
tion. Each item on your task list should be actionable
and specific -- start each item with a verb such as
write or study or buy.

Another way to break a larger task up into smaller

ones is outlining. Yes, this is a skill you learned in
middle school, but that doesnt make it any less effec-
tive or easy to pull off. Outlining forces you to make
your thoughts explicit, exposing them to the harsh
light of reality. In your mind, a task might seem decep-
tively easy. Once you start writing down the skeleton
of what you need to actually get something done, the
veneer of ease and simplicity starts to get stripped
away. I like outlining using logic as my guide: what
follows from what came before it? If my bigger task
is, write dissertation and I break that up into write
chapters 1-10, those sub-tasks are not informative AT
ALL. Those sub-tasks will just sit there, like a fallow
field. But if I write, write introduction that describes
how the science of judgment and decision mak-
ing came to be and then break up that larger task
into smaller ones such as discuss the fathers of the
field, Herb Simon, Ward Edwards, discuss the main
competing frameworks between analytic and intui-
tive judgment, that level of detail lends itself to being
tackled. Vague, abstract tasks on your list will just sit
19
there and pile up, never to be accomplished, making
you feel worse and worse.

Another added benefit of breaking up a larger task

into smaller ones? It makes the larger task seem more
conquerable -- like taking small steps up the side of
a huge mountain. Each small step, taken on its own,
seems doable, while trying to summit the peak can
seem incredibly daunting. For example, if you want
to write an e-book in 30 days, plotting and planning
in detail makes a seemingly impossible task doable.
Use this psychological trick to your advantage! Break-
ing up a larger task into smaller tasks also gives you
a sense of micro-accomplishment as you cross things
off your list. Dont discount the motivating power of
these small victories. In my mind, having any victories
in a day means that it was a good day.

Ill leave you with this: one foot in front of the other.
Thats a saying I picked up from my Army days. That
was something I repeated to myself all the time. Re-
peating this mantra helped carry me through the last
mile of a forced march at 0500 in the Arizona desert
carrying a 45 lb pack. At the time I weighed around
about 100 lbs soaking wet, so that huge a portion of
my body weight. But I made it in under three hours. I
still sometimes say this mantra to myself when I face
a particularly daunting task. When youre really strug-
20
gling, tell yourself youll get through. One step, one
page, one assignment, one memo -- remind yourself
that you will get there eventually. And you will. Believe
it. Believe in yourself.

PRINCIPLE 2 SUMMARY
Set a daily goal for yourself and keep it in focus
at all times.
Break a larger task up into smaller tasks.
When breaking up larger tasks into smaller
ones, ensure they are actionable and specific
items, vague and abstract tasks never get done.

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Principle 3: Stay in shape
efficiently
Why is working out so important and what does it
have to do with being productive? Did you know that
being fit is a great cognitive enhancer? Not only will
you feel better if you exercise, but youll also think
better. Being in shape increases your work output
rate and makes you more efficient at getting around --
which means, you guessed it, being more productive!

So what do I do at the gym? I really like this Mens

Journal routine which is formed around the idea that
all effortful human movement falls in three catego-
ries: pushing, pulling, and extending your hips. I do
all eight of those movements every other day. It is
simple:

1. pull ups
2. dips
3. decline bench crunches
4. dumbbell bench press
5. weighted lunges
6. dumbbell shoulder press
7. kettlebell swings
8. seated rows (usually done on a universal machine)

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I generally do 4 sets of 10 for exercises 3 through 8.
For pull ups, I normally do 10 sets of 10 pull ups for a
total of 100 pullups, and for dips I do 4 sets of 20 dips
each. Why the focus on pull ups? Doing them involves
activating the muscles in most of your upper body,
arms, back, and triceps, at the same time. And you
can build in core-focused reps by doing leg raises af-
ter your pull ups are complete. Many people consider
pull ups the most essential and complete exercise
out there. Pull ups can also be done anywhere! When
I was on active duty, I kept a door pull up bar in the
trunk of my car. I even took one with me on my first
deployment to Iraq. Whenever I was feeling tired, Id
go and knock out ten pull ups. After that, I wasnt tired
any more.

It usually takes me 30-45 minutes to get through this

circuit. And the faster I get it done, the more cardio I
am able to simultaneously work in, as each exercise
leaves me breathing hard.

When I run, I generally look for scenic spots and inspi-

ration. I generally run for 30-40 minutes at a moderate
pace (usually keeping my heartrate around 160bpm).
Running is also a great time to gather your thoughts
and generate new ideas. If Im feeling hungry for
knowledge, Ill fire up a podcast like Tim Ferriss or
Serial. If Im feeling like zoning out, Ill listen to music.
23
Running has been shown to keep people young and
you dont even need to do a lot of it: new research
suggests that you only need to run five or six miles a
week to reap the health benefits. The best part about
running? It is completely free and requires very little
equipment. A solid pair of running shoes and some
earbuds for your smartphone will do!

Other people I know turn their commutes into their

exercise time, either running or biking to work. It was
even purported that before the Anacostia River was
closed off to recreational traffic, people used to pad-
dle and kayak to the Pentagon. Now thats a great use
of time -- you beat the traffic AND got your daily work
out in.

Now I know what youre thinking. But youre already

in shape! Its easy to stay in shape if youre in shape
already. I wasnt always in shape. Actually, the way
my high school friends remember it, I was the chubby
short kid who ran slowly and didnt make it past fresh-
man year of track while everyone else ran cross-
country or played varsity football. One day after se-
nior year of high school and after breaking my wrist, I
got tired of feeling sluggish and out of shape. I started
walking around the neighborhood for 15 minutes a
day. I gradually increased that to 30 minutes a day
and then I started to jog a bit. If youre not in shape,
24
take an incremental approach to getting there, just
like I discussed in Principle 2. If you can run to the
end of the block one day, try making it to two blocks
the next day. And so on and so forth. If you want to
do more reading about tips for getting started down
the journey to getting in shape, Reddit has one of the
best beginners guides out there, absolutely free for
anyone to look at. There are lots of tips in there for
starting small and going from there. The bottom line:
you have to find what works for you. And then do it.
Ruthlessly and efficiently. Efficiency is essential to pro-
ductivity and productivity is essential to success!

PRINCIPLE 3 SUMMARY
Stay in shape because it helps you think.
Be efficient with your exercise routine.
Get startedstart somewhere and stick with it!

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 SECTION TWO

Getting Better
Over Time

26
Principle 4: Understand
yourself to find your
motivation
Have you ever found yourself struggling with some
assignment or task? Have you struggled to figure out
why? Do you procrastinate a lot? Even after you tell
yourself youll get something done, do you wind up
wasting your time reorganizing your DVD collection or
cleaning your apartment (or on Facebook)?

Dan Pinks book Drive, about intrinsic motivation,

summarizes the last fifty years or so of psychological
research into motivation. In it, Pink focuses on three
principles that keep people motivated (beyond mon-
ey and extrinsic factors):

Autonomy - being able to set your own priori-

ties and path
Mastery - working on a task where you can get
demonstrably better at it over time
Purpose - doing something for more than just
yourself or monetary gain

Finding a job or creating one (why do some people

always think they have to work for someone else?)

27
that gives you the freedom to explore, where you
feel like youre making progress each day, and which
serves a greater good, is a really great way to super-
charge your productivity. Why? Because youll WANT
to be productive. That drive will come from inside you.

Did you ever just sit down and unexpectedly spend

hours or days on a task or assignment? Did you get
up from the computer wondering where the hours
went, but feeling satisfied and refreshed? Where did
that internal energy come from? And how can we, if
we can, recapture that seemingly boundless internal
energy? The research shows that it likely came from
these intrinsic factors, such as seeking fulfillment or
accomplishing some larger societal goal. Restoring
our natural sense of exploration and wonder in dis-
covering is essential to helping us push the productiv-
ity boundary through the intrinsic motivation that lies
in each of us. Replicating those factors is the best way
to get you and keep you at your productivity peak.

Extrinsic motivation, like a new car or a pair of new

shoes or some kind of award at work or a big raise,
can only keep you happy for so long. Eventually those
external rewards wear off. Have you ever bought
something, like a new jacket or a new gadget, think-
ing that it would make you really really happy, only to
discover later on that you dont even notice this thing
28
anymore? You got used to it and the novelty doesnt
excite you -- you dont notice the gadgets neat fea-
tures anymore, theyre just sort of there now. Youve
become habituated to this new thing, which is a com-
mon occurrence that happens with every material
thing! You cant just keep trying to fuel your work with
these artificial aids, ultimately you have to find that in-
ner drive to keep you going.

This is not to say that extrinsic rewards arent useful

or effective in the short term. Lots of people will use
small rewards, an effective strategy as long as the
net effect is positive. For instance, you might prom-
ise yourself a movie rental or an episode of an HBO
show when you finish the chapter or complete study-
ing for the exam. With something nice to look forward
to, you could be motivated to finish what you need
to do. Just be aware that these kinds of reward sys-
tems tend to get blunted in the long-run and you will
require bigger and bigger rewards to get the same
effect. Not too many of us can afford to promise our-
selves a Tesla as long as we complete an important
project.

The corollary to the intrinsic motivation principle is

figuring out what youre good at and doing that. For
some people, what they are good at may not be what
they think they enjoy. But why do we insist on every-
29
one doing what they love? Cal Newport calls this the
passion trap, the idea that everyone has to find their
passion when things are a tad more complicated than
that. Cal highlights how this idea might be making lots
of people even more unhappy than they otherwise
would be. What the search for passion ignores is that
passion and ability go hand in hand with each other--
the better you are at something, the more likely it is
that youll be passionate about it.

Lets say youre a great programmer. Or a great hu-

man resources representative. If you can make a
great living doing those things, why not continue
doing them in order to build up capital for other en-
deavors? For all of the recent talk about do what
you love, I think that perhaps the conversation has
gone a little too far in that direction. Maybe you dont
love what you do -- but youre good at it and the
job provides major societal and personal benefits, or
opportunities to develop a new ability. The great thing
about this situation is that you can take what you earn
at your job and trade it for the time and space to find
what you think you could truly love.

Motivation is hard to come by. Being great at some-

thing is hard to come by. Dont throw either down the
drain and seek to maximize both.

30
PRINCIPLE 4 SUMMARY
Be intrinsically motivated -- because those ex-
trinsic factors are fleeting and wont always be
there.
Use self-rewards sparingly, short-term achieve-
ment goodies do work, but their effectiveness
decreases over time, necessitating more and
more self-bribery.
If you cant figure out what motivates you, do
what youre good at, and then trade the time
and money saved to find yourself.

31
Principle 5: Practice and grit
make things easier and help
you achieve flow
Once youve found that thing that motivates you or
that youre at least somewhat good at doing, it is
essential to harness that energy and turn it into ex-
pertise. Youve probably never heard of Anders Erics-
son, but hes a researcher who for years has studied
how people develop expertise. He is considered the
worlds foremost expert on experts. You probably
have heard of a guy named Malcolm Gladwell though
-- he popularized Ericssons research in the form of
the 10,000 hour rule in his book Outliers. The rule
refers to how much practice you have to have within a
domain to reach truly expert levels of performance.

The great thing about practice is that, most of the

time, all it requires is your energy and some time. It
doesnt cost you money -- just a little bit of motivation
to get your butt off of the couch. If youre not produc-
tive at work, youre probably not going to get there by
watching television. So do yourself a favor -- turn off
the TV or Netflix and set for yourself the goal of prac-
ticing at least one hour a day at something. Maybe
its cooking. Maybe its writing. Maybe its program-

32
ming. Maybe its making PowerPoint presentations or
speaking publicly. Maybe youve always wanted to
start a blog or a podcast or learn to knit. Whatever it
may be, you can get better at it, but you need to put
in the work to get there. It isnt just going to appear
out of thin air for you. The better you are at some-
thing, the more efficient youll be at it.

People who are able to consistently practice prob-

ably have what Angela Duckworths research finds is
the most important factor for success: grittiness. Grit
means having the determination to keep going in the
face of adversity. Unlike IQ, which is relatively fixed,
grit has been shown to be something you can devel-
op over time! It starts with mindfulness and breathing
exercises. Just taking a moment to pause when you
come to a stressful juncture can be helpful to giving
you that small boost to KEEP GOING. Developing your
grit will make you better at hard, effortful practice,
which will pay significant dividends down the road.

Practice is also essential for achieving what Mihly

Cskszentmihlyi calls flow states. Flow, or the feeling
of full immersion in a task, is that experience youve
had when you hit all your shots in a basketball game
or wrote 10 pages of your paper in a single sitting.
Youre in the zone. Youre feeling inspired. Youre feel-
ing invincible. When youre firing on all cylinders, you
33
can handle and get tasks done before youre even
really consciously aware of it. But how do we get into
that state?

Practice and grittiness lower the barriers for you to

get to flow states. The more you practice and the grit-
tier you become, the easier tasks will be for you. What
took you a few hours in the past will take half an hour
and feel easier and easier. Well talk more later about
how to structure your environment to achieve flow
states -- but recognize that it probably takes develop-
ment of expertise and a base-level of grittiness to get
to flow states reliably.

PRINCIPLE 5 SUMMARY
Practice lowers cognitive task barriers and
boosts productivity.
Keep working at tasks until youre able to reli-
ably achieve flow states.

34
Principle 6: Track your time
use and shift it towards
productive things
Time. It is our most valuable resource, yet we often
treat it like it is something we can waste. Knowing
how you use your time and optimizing time-use is a
huge part of maximizing productivity. As Ben Franklin
said, Lost time is never found again.

The first step to fixing a problem about yourself is to

recognize that you have one. We spend so much of
our time in front of computers now, its easy to get
sucked into the vortex of Facebook, Twitter, Buzzfeed
quizzes, and YouTube videos. But can you really know
if youre spending too much time on these sites if you
dont measure it? I only recently, within the last year,
started diligently tracking my internet usage. I use
RescueTime, a free Chrome extension, to do it. I tell
RescueTime what sites I consider to be time wast-
ers and it gives me both a detailed breakdown of
time use, how much time I spent on sites I consider
productive (Google Docs vs. Gmail), and a weekly
report.

How do I use my time when Im online and in front of

35
a computer?

I used RescueTime to track my internet time use over

the span of a month or so. Gmail is still dominant and
thats not surprising since many of my collaborators
are not local to Philadelphia. However, Ive been mak-
ing a concerted effort to streamline my own communi-
cations habits. Im definitely getting better at checking
and responding to email and Im also spending less
time on Facebook (down to about 30 minutes a day).

Another great tool for figuring out your time use is

to use your Google Calendar or a planner to block
out parts of your day. An analog tool that is also use-
ful and much cheaper than buying a customized
notebook is to use a 10x10 grid with each square
representing 10 minutes (such as the one here http://
waitbutwhy.com/2016/10/100-blocks-day.html). Imag-
ine your day as 100 10-minute blocks of time. Thats all
you have to spend each day. That means that watch-
ing a sports game on TV likely takes 25 blocks. Thats
of all of the productive blocks you have a day. In
short, be careful with how you use your time! Before
you know it, youll have spent all your blocks. And
these are blocks youll never get back.

What kinds of principles should people follow to man-

age time? Ive found Peter Druckers five principles of
36
time management are excellent. They are:

1. know where time goes

2. focus on outward contributions
3. build on strengths
4. concentrate on the few major areas where superior
performance will produce outstanding results
5. make effective decisions

While Druckers principles are directed at managers,

they also apply to everyone (since you are the man-
ager of yourself!). Drucker is really telling us about
how comparative advantage, or focusing on what
youre good at, applies to how we spend our time.
Unless you really have to, why spend time on some-
thing youre not good at? Why not offload the things
like changing the oil on your car to someone else
so that you can focus on the things youre good at?
If you get rid of the unnecessary things in your life
and leverage your strengths, youll soon find yourself
with a lot more time and resources to be productive.
Do you really want to spend time on the phone deal-
ing with customer service or scheduling things? Both
productivity gurus Ramit Sethi and Tim Ferriss recom-
mend outsourcing these cognitively simple tasks.

Lastly, by focusing on your own outcomes and contri-

butions, youll have a tangible and measurable bot-
37
tom line accounting at the end of the day: what did I
accomplish with the 17-18 hours I spent awake today?
If the answer to that question doesnt make you hap-
py -- you know its time to make some changes in the
ways you spend your time! Being efficient with your
time is the greatest, most impactful change you can
make. Start now before its too late!

PRINCIPLE 6 SUMMARY
Track your time use; if you dont know about
problems, you cant fix them.
To quickly track time use think of your day as
100 blocks of 10 minutes. You have 100 blocks to
spend each day.
Be efficient by optimizing what you spend your
time doing.

38
Principle 7: Self-control
doesnt come easy -- set
yourself up for success
Self-control. It is one of the important things that sepa-
rates us from animals. Humans are blessed with this
capability. The first step to achieving self-control is to
limit your contact with the things that keep you away
from your goals and the kind of person you ultimately
want to be. If youre on a diet, would you put a choco-
late cake on the kitchen table and leave it there, call-
ing to you temptingly like some kind of siren? If youre
trying to quit smoking, would you go hang out in a
smoky bar or take your breaks at the office smoke
pit? The answer to both is no. Achieving and main-
taining self-control is hard enough, so why would you
sabotage yourself before youve even had a chance
to succeed?

Limiting exposure to goal obstacles also includes

people. People who are constantly negative towards
you and your goals or who are actively encouraging
you to do things contrary to your self-interest are not
the least bit helpful. Like the alcoholic friend who tries
to get you to drink even though they know youre in
rehab, these are people you need to try to limit your

39
interaction with if at all possible.

One other major roadblock to productivity is social

media and email. Getting yourself away from the time-
suck that is your Facebook feed can require a su-
preme act of self-control. If you cant control yourself
from checking Facebook or Twitter every ten sec-
onds, then one easy way of doing this is to hide the
apps off of the home screen and nest it in a category
you rarely use, several pages in. In my browser, I use
Stayfocused, a free chrome extension, to block cer-
tain sites (e.g., Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter, those
notorious time-suckers) when I really need to get stuff
done. You can set some sites as non-blocked, such
as Google Docs or Wikipedia, and set the rest of the
internet as blocked for a certain period of time. Thats
what Stayfocused calls the nuclear option. I have to
admit that when Im really demotivated, I do have to
resort to the nuclear option. It works.

I also turned on the social and promotions tabs

on my Gmail, which pushed all of those Twitter ads
and fundraising request emails to a box I never have
to check I unless I really want to. Im an inbox zero
person, so this has helped me reduce the amount of
times I check email daily by tenfold. Finally, on days I
have to get a lot of work done, I limit my email check-
ing to once every two hours.
40
Another great way of imposing self-control? Set up an
accountability system. Consider getting some trusted
friends involved. For example, if you need to get an
assignment done and arent feeling particularly mo-
tivated to do so, making it publicly known that you
have to do it and that if you dont, youll impose some
kind of self-punishment may give you that motiva-
tional boost to get that thing done. On the flipside,
you might want to consider giving yourself some kind
of positive reinforcement at the end. For example, if
you get the assignment done, youll allow yourself to
watch that movie youve been dying to see. The great
thing about exercising self-control is that once youve
set up your systems and start putting the principles
into practice, it gets easier over time. Talk about a
great return on investment.

PRINCIPLE 7 SUMMARY
Dont make self-control harder than it already is;
remove temptations whenever possible.
Self-control gets easier with more and more
practice, when it becomes second nature.
Develop systems for enforcing self-accountabil-
ity.

41
 SECTION THREE

Set Yourself
Up to Be
Successful

42
Principle 8: Streamline your
life by automating
To become more productive, sometimes you need to
find more time. Theres an easy principle to follow to
find more time. One thing that the Internet is making
easier and easier to cut out of your life is the need to
physically go to a store or wait in line. Now that you
can order groceries and renew your drivers license
online, why go to these places at all? Youre only set-
ting yourself up to be inconvenienced. With the prolif-
eration of free shipping and all-inclusive memberships
like Amazon Prime, you can easily set yourself up with
a system that delivers all of lifes essentials to your
mailbox.

Cutting out these inefficiencies in your life is some-

thing I wrote about in this blog post. Services like
Amazons Subscribe and Save and Blue Aprons
dinner kit delivery service have revolutionized my life
in a good way. I remember when I was growing up,
Sundays werent about football. Sundays were long
days spent at Costco when the whole family would go
and buy essentials at the store together. Now, those
things just get delivered to my front door. My Sundays
have been rescued, freeing up time that I can now
use productively, like writing this e-book!
43
Other methods and products Ive used to save time
include: subscription services such as quip tooth-
brushes (they deliver a fresh brush-head and tooth-
paste every three months, automatically), Dollar
Shave Club (set your shaving needs on autopilot),
and, of course, auto-pay for all credit cards and other
accounts. I also stopped drinking coffee and moved
to using a product that our company produces called
Starter. The less time you spend on these matters the
more time you have to spend on the things that really
matter.

This principle also relates back to my earlier point

about wearing the same or similar clothing each day.
I know lots of people, and Im sure you do too, that
spend all day at work surfing clothing sites and follow-
ing fashion trends. I have a few go-to brands which
have consistent sizing, so that when something I own
wears out, I can easily put another set on order. For
example, Ive been wearing Nike Pegasus size 8.5
shoes since 2007, and continue to order new Pega-
sus shoes as the old ones wear out and new ones are
released. I treat my Merrell Moab Ventilators the same
way. It is helpful to know these things about the prod-
ucts you rely on, so that you know that whatever sizes
youre ordering are going to fit well without having to
go to the store to try them on. Ultimately, these auto-
mations and productivity hacks save gas, save time,
44
and allow you to spend your time doing the things
you really want to do -- like being productive and ac-
complishing those life goals!

PRINCIPLE 8 SUMMARY
Online services such as Amazon Prime and Blue
Apron make it easier to cut trips to the store and
standing in lines out of your life.
Use subscription services for items that youd
rather not spend time thinking about.
Save time by buying from the same brands.

45
Principle 9: Control and
optimize your sensory
environment
Where you work matters a lot because your environ-
ment helps to dictate how much work you get done.
With the proliferation of open work spaces and more
and more of our work being accomplished in a soli-
tary way, our environment can be either beneficial or
detrimental to the amount of work we get done. Pay-
ing careful attention to the kinds of environments that
you work best in will help you optimize the conditions
that will help you get stuff done.

Did you know that ambient noise helps you be more

creative and get work done? One neat tool I use to
create ambient noise is Noisli. If I know Im going to
be heading into a long coding session, I will generally
turn on the electronic or chill radio stations on Apple
Music and put on my Sennheiser headphones. I try
to tune my auditory inputs to the task at hand. I gen-
erally avoid any music with words in it if Im trying to
write a journal article or code. But I love listening to
pop music (Ive been a huge pop music fan my whole
life) when Im working on creative stuff like design-
ing PowerPoint presentations. You have to find what

46
works for you.

Changing up your workplace visual environment is

also important. Have you ever wondered why people
get work done in coffee shops? Part of it is the afore-
mentioned ambient noise factor. The other part is that
usually coffee shops are unfamiliar places with unfa-
miliar faces. This actually heightens your stress level a
bit. Research on stress, a staple of the psychological
field for many years, has time and again shown that
there is a proximal zone of stress.

Too little stress and you feel bored and likely unmo-
tivated to work. Too much stress and youre over-
whelmed, unable to think clearly. You wouldnt try
to do work at a concert venue, for example. Coffee
shops are one place to generate the environment for
the proximal zone of stress. Another might be the lo-
cal library or a co-working space.

Public places are good for working because other

people serve as a built-in accountability mechanism.
It is really hard to screw around when theres a lot of
other people around. This is particularly true in quiet
places like libraries and co-working spaces. We are,
ultimately, social animals, and having people around
us who are also working hard makes it easier for us to
work hard.
47
One tactic I used as an undergrad and that I have
carried into my graduate school years is to work from
a different place each day. On Mondays, I usually go
into the lab to work, and I rotate among a neighbor-
hood co-working space, my small windowless office
in the lab, my home office which has lots of sunshine,
and the library. I usually try to find a different place
to work in the library. The change of scenery keeps
me on my toes and keeps my visual surroundings
from going stale. Staying out of the boredom zone
can help you boost your productivity! Not only does
this help boost productivity but research shows that
changing your environment can also lead to better
information retention and improved memory.

PRINCIPLE 9 SUMMARY
Create ambient noise to boost your productivity
and creativity.
Work in a public space to hold yourself account-
able-- it is harder to mess around in public
Change up where you do work to keep yourself
from falling into complacency.

48
 SECTION FOUR

Cut Out the

Noise and
Focus

49
Principle 10: Be efficient with
your communications
Communication is the lifeblood of many knowledge
industries. Efficient communications are doubly pow-
erful: people are more likely to read your messages
and youll be less likely to have misunderstandings
which require time to fix. One rule of thumb I sub-
scribe to is that before I send an email, I think about
whether or not the message that is being delivered
will result in more than one response. I try to deliver
one message via email, but if I think the message or
subject is going to require delivering more than two
follow-up emails, I will email to schedule a phone call
instead. Similarly, if were going to have a phone con-
ference, I always demand an agenda or generate one
ahead of time, so that we dont wind up just spending
a lot of time meandering from one point to another. I
also try to limit all phone conferences to 30 minutes
and always an hour, max. If a call or meeting lasts lon-
ger than that, you havent properly prepped for it.

Being efficient with email is a huge challenge. But

consider this paradox: how many people do you
know who complain about getting too many emails?
It turns out that these people are likely causing their
own email problems. People who generally get a lot
50
of emails are also the ones who send a lot of emails,
which engenders responses that require subsequent
email communications. You can spend your entire
day writing email and be extremely unproductive as
a result. I probably receive 100 non-spammy non-
marketing emails a day. Guess what? I try to limit my
responses and I try to send only 10 emails a day. It has
really helped me cut down on emails, which now only
take up about of my online time per day. It used to
be closer to half!

One tip for being more efficient with your communi-

cations is to employ the one-touch rule. Dont tackle
an email or communication until youre ready to fully
commit your attention to it. If you arent, youll likely
have to explain yourself in greater detail which forces
you to re-engage on something you could have
crossed off your list the first time around.

PRINCIPLE 10 SUMMARY
If you dont want to receive a lot of emails, dont
send a lot of emails.
Pick up the phone.

51
Principle 11: Avoid
unnecessary meetings
How many times have you been sitting in a meeting
and said to yourself, this is such a waste of time?
I think one of the worst uses of time are regularly
scheduled meetings, which seems to be an un-
changeable fact of office life. Regularly scheduled
meetings can be unproductive because it assumes
that the people in the office have a regular rhythm.
But just from observation, we know that offices dont
always operate at the same pace -- externally im-
posed deadlines, seasons, holidays, personal events
such as the birth of children and deaths of parents, all
of these things are happening all the time to people.
Sometimes you need to meet more often -- other
times you dont -- and if your office isnt one that cali-
brates to these demand signals, then avoiding these
meetings altogether could boost your productivity.

If at all possible, start trying to extricate yourself from

these time commitments that you know you arent go-
ing to get a good return-on-time-invested. Ignore that
fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) feeling -- you arent miss-
ing anything. Start by learning which groups of people
are most inefficient when it comes to meeting discus-
sions and avoiding them. Figure out which regular
52
meetings are for informational exchange (which can
easily be done on sites like Basecamp, Slack, or
email) and which are ones where actual decisions will
be made. Finally, before attending the meeting, ask
yourself if youll be contributing anything substantive
to the discussion. If the answer is no, consider not go-
ing.

I know that skipping meetings all the time, or even

most of the time, isnt possible for everyone, but even
executives and those with a lot of demands on their
time can get themselves out of meetings. For exam-
ple, Mark Cuban is famous for not going to meetings.
Yes, hes a billionaire so he can afford to do this be-
cause hes not as reliant on others, but youd be sur-
prised at how far you can push the envelope on this.
Ultimately, how can you know if you dont try? You
might be pleasantly surprised at how many unproduc-
tive meetings you can avoid.

PRINCIPLE 11 SUMMARY
Dont go to unnecessary meetings.
Learn who will waste your time and avoid them.

53
Principle 12: Do more than
one thing at once, but know
the limits of multitasking
Another way of maximizing your time is to pair cogni-
tively simple and cognitively taxing activities. For ex-
ample, you can wipe down your kitchen counters and
listen to the latest educational podcast or audiobook
you love (I really enjoy listening to the Philosophize
This! podcast while doing chores), or eat lunch while
chatting with an associate about your latest project or
idea, or talk about a new idea while youre running or
lifting weights. Youre basically engaging both think-
ing systems, (system 1, automatic and intuitive, and
system 2, deliberate and effortful), of your brain simul-
taneously. This concept is most famously associated
with Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahne-
man. Think about Systems 1 and 2 like this: instanta-
neous and seemingly effortless tasks like adding 2
+ 2 engage system 1 processes (see how you knew
the answer very quickly), while more laborious and
difficult cognitive tasks such as writing an email or an
e-book engage system 2 processes.

Now, you would potentially run into problems if you

try to engage your system 2 on multiple tasks si-

54
multaneously. The research on multitasking is pretty
unequivocal -- it doesnt work and makes us less
efficient. So unless youre really superhuman, youre
probably tricking yourself into thinking you are better
than the average person when it comes to multitask-
ing. Small interruptions, to answer email, text mes-
sages, or look at notifications, can really disrupt your
train of thought as well, requiring even more time to
put yourself back into the task. So do yourself a favor
when you are really trying to get work done -- put all
of that stuff on mute!

However, there are some multi-tasking strategies that

do work. One is the aforementioned pairing of au-
tomatic tasks with effortful tasks. Another is to work
on related tasks together, a great suggestion from
Entrepreneur magazine. This way youre able to be
more cognitively efficient when approaching the tasks
that you need to get done. A strategy that is easy to
implement and has been proven to work is to cogni-
tively off-load to a list or step-by-step guide like I men-
tioned in Principle 2, thereby turning what was once
a difficult and cognitively taxing task into something
less so.

55
PRINCIPLE 12 SUMMARY
Pair mindless activity with cognitively taxing
activity.
Dont multitask too much, unless it is a number
of activities in which youre already well-prac-
ticed.

56
Principle 13: Know when to
take a break, when to walk
away, and when to relax
Sometimes you hit a wall, despite all of your efforts to
push past it. Sometimes you reach the wall well after
youve reached the point of diminishing returns. Too
often we work past this point and fail to realize that
were just hitting our heads against a hard surface
and not generating useful output. If youre going to
all of these lengths to optimize the rest of your life,
why wouldnt you also try to reduce the time when
you arent able to be productive, in order to maximize
your free and relaxation time? Sometimes good ideas
come to us while were doing these other activities
and science shows that sometimes we do have to let
ideas marinate. Those shower thoughts can be excel-
lent!

When youre taking a short break (for example, 5-10

minutes for a short walk every other hour) it helps to
get out of the environment you were working in. What
are some things you can do to recharge?

Go outside and look at nature for a while.

Listen to some music while youre walking around. I

57
sometimes like to turn on Apple Musics Chill station
for something easy-going and familiar. Other times Ill
just play something popular on YouTube. Right now
that song is apparently Coldplays Adventure of a
Lifetime.
See if a colleague will join you for a chat.
Stretch! I like to stretch my back and legs.
Do 10 pull-ups and get the blood pumping.
Meditate for ten minutes -- it will help you center
yourself and come back refreshed, and over the long
term, meditation can improve your focus and man-
age stress. I like Headspace, which can help you train
your mind to meditate effectively in ten minutes a day.

Youll feel so much better afterwards. At night some-

times Ill take a quick shower, which science suggests
is a great way to juice your creativity.

For longer breaks, or days off, engaging your mind

by going hiking or watching a movie is essential for
resetting that motivational clock and restoring your
self-control and work energy stores. Personally, I like
to go running, listen to music, or watch the Knicks play
basketball.

58
PRINCIPLE 13 SUMMARY
Take breaks when you need to -- sometimes
you need to recharge to tackle tasks.
Make the most of your recharging opportunities.

59
Principle 14: Procrastination
isnt about fear of work, it is
about fear of disappointment
Almost everyone procrastinates. Putting off what we
should do today until tomorrow is natural and not
necessarily a problem. Until, of course, it is. The prob-
lem tends to sneak up on us precisely because of the
nature of procrastination. When routinely delaying
and deferring what you should be doing becomes ha-
bitual, thats the beginning of a problem that can only
spiral out of control if you dont get ahead of it. What
follows is a distillation of good work that Ive read on
countering procrastinating tendencies.

First, a personal story. I, like everyone else, struggle

with procrastination. To this day, I have not overcome
my tendencies, but I have developed mitigation strat-
egies to make the effects of it less pronounced. Pri-
marily, I replaced the typical procrastination activities
such as cleaning your room, organizing your desk,
watching television and movies, with productive ac-
tivities. Im lucky thoughI enjoy reading about poli-
tics to forecast events (one of my side gigs), looking
at real estate and modeling cash flow (another side
gig), doing reviews of products Ive purchased, as well

60
as writing about personal growth. I understand this is
atypical. When Ive operated in a professional setting,
Ive tended to work in organizations where there are
true emergencies: if I dont do X someone else will
get hurt or worse. That kind of motivation is deeply
moving but it is also atypical.

Now that Im in academia, most deadlines are self-

imposed. Even working on a big research project like
I am now, the lag between project start and project
delivery can be weeks, months or years. This kind of
situation is a recipe for procrastination: little urgency,
little to no feedback, and it is unclear what kind of
impact youll ultimately make with your efforts. Im in
my third year now and if it wasnt for the development
of good work habits, I probably wouldnt have made it
this far. I have the utmost respect for people who do
research and write. On the surface, a job in the mili-
tary might seem harder but the psychological battle
you need to fight to keep going when you face a
mountain of writing is very similar, if not more difficult,
than a long ruck march for a lengthy patrol.

Why do we procrastinate? Most researchers point to

a few factors: being afraid of failure, being afraid of
imperfection, being afraid of getting started because
the task seems insurmountable, being afraid of real-
izing youre maybe not good enough for the task
61
starting to get the picture? Procrastination isnt really
about the task, it is mostly about fear. Overcoming
this fear is essential to beating procrastination. Part of
the issue is that we tend to discount our future selves
compared to our current selves. What does this ac-
tually mean? It means that we dont value our future
time as much as we do the time that is right in front
of our face, even though time is a non-replaceable
resource. If we are comfortable now, sitting in front of
the couch, we could situation so much that we never
overcome the action threshold. This means we wont
get started doing what we need to do because what
we need to do is so much more uncomfortable than
our current state.

Heres what Ive found that works for procrastination:

1. Stop blaming yourself and start motivating yourself.

Youll never get out of this mental rut if you are
routinely negative about your situation. Like a car
stuck in neutral, you need to coax your mind into
gear.

2. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Ive

heard several former military people describe this
as the key to getting through Navy SEAL training
or other special forces selection. Too often we
seek comfort now, not realizing that that comfort
62
 now is going to cost us comfort in the future. In
fact, it will cost us the potential to realize who we
could be. That is a near infinite cost: looking back
on your life, how disappointed will you be with
who youve become? Dont let yourself get to that
point.

3. Plan with micro-tasks but stop over-analyzing the

situation. You need a concrete plan to move for-
ward but sometimes planning becomes a substi-
tute for action. Dont let that happen. Planning is
essential but you cant let that become the only
mechanism you have. At some point you need to
take action.

4. Get rid of the distractions. In extreme cases, Ive

found myself using Stayfocusd on my browser and
Freedom app on my phone so that I have zero
access to social media. Ill even turn off my phone
so that I dont get iMessages, my Slack isnt going
off 24/7 and my WhatsApp group chats are faded
into the background. I used this near total sensory
deprivation technique, along with finding places in
the library that are open but lack distractions and
finished a 20,000 word draft of one of my pre-
dissertation papers in six days. Reading rooms are
great for this: they are public spaces where you
wont be tempted to do random distracting stuff.
63
5. Just get started. Dont worry about it not making
sense or not being good enough. Start writing.
Start reading. Start doing. Get the mental ball roll-
ing. At some point what you write will make sense
and then youll have opened the doorway to suc-
cess.

In short, procrastination is a psychological battle. Arm

yourself with strategies for getting beyond it. Your
future self will thank you.

PRINCIPLE 14 SUMMARY
Procrastination is about fear and is primarily
psychological.
Be positive, plan but dont over-plan, and at the
end of the day, the most important thing to do is
to just get started, no matter how rough or bad
you think your output will be.

64
 SECTION FIVE

The Big One

65
Principle 15: Never give up!
Work smarter AND harder.
Do you know how long it took me to figure out all
of these things? Years. None of these lessons came
easy. One thing I hope is that my own experimenta-
tion and thinking helps you shorten the time it takes
to achieve higher levels of productivity.

Which brings me to my last two and most important

points. First, you are going to struggle. Everyone
does. Youll find yourself without the necessary disci-
pline to continue, at times. But dont give up. Youll get
there. Youll find that slowly, youre able to get more
and more done. Youll become attuned to the condi-
tions that will set you up for success. And finally, youll
break through and achieve optimal performance.

Second, as I wrote at the beginning of this e-book,

just diving in and brute-forcing your way to suc-
cess isnt going to get you very far. In my opinion,
the phrase should be work smarter AND harder.
Exhortations to work smarter without also pushing
people to work harder is providing advice that sells
them short of maximum potential. If you implement
the aforementioned principles in your daily life, why
shouldnt you also apply them to your whole life?
66
Remember, if you dont know where youre going, any
way will get you there. Being strategic about your life
goals and what you need to do to get there means
applying the fourteen principles in a macro way. Imag-
ine the person you want to be 20 years from now.
Do you want to be a millionaire? Do you want to own
your own successful business? Do you want to launch
a new brand, be a famous novelist, or release a mu-
sic album? You cant achieve those goals if you arent
deliberate and strategic about achieving them.
So how can you apply these principles at a macro
level?

Pick your goal. Backwards plan from that goal

and be single-minded in achieving it. Keep the
big picture in mind when youre making your
plan.
Be ruthlessly honest about the steps you need
to achieve to get there. Do you want to lose 20
lbs? Know that youll either have to cut thou-
sands of calories from your diet on a weekly
basis to get there or do thousands of calories
worth of exercise. Theres simply no other way.
Consider the opportunity costs. On average
well live to about 70-80 years old, barring
some revolutionary breakthrough in medicine.
So you only have so much time to accomplish
your goal. All the other time you spend on ir-
67
 relevant tasks is time you wont be spending to
get where you really want to go.

Ill leave you with this final story. When I was three and
a half years old, I immigrated to the United States. I
spoke zero English. When I started pre-Kindergarten
the following year, I didnt speak very much with my
classmates because I couldnt. My teachers told my
parents that I didnt make enough progress that year
and would have to be sent to English as a Second
Language classes (ESL). I didnt know at the time, but
that meant I would be separated from the regular
kids and have to ride a short bus across town to
attend ESL. My parents thought I was on a path to
failure (I wasnt acclimating to the school environment)
and I started to slowly realize that I was different and
potentially less-able than my classmates. At a young
age, it could have been easy for me to give up and
settle for mediocrity. Instead, I took it as a challenge
(what right do you have to send me to the remedial
class!). With the help of an amazing ESL teacher
and coaching from my parents, I was able to rejoin
my classmates in 1st grade after a year of remedial
schooling and made it all the way to the Ivy League.
Like being drafted in the sixth round or being rejected
by many publishers, we should always remember that
we have a choice in the direction of our lives and how
we use our time. Take those tough moments and turn
68
them into motivation. Youll find yourself even more
productive, not less, as a result.

PRINCIPLE 15 SUMMARY
Never give up!
Life goes on and so will you. Make the most of it!

69
Summary
The more we reinforce ideas in our mind, the easier
it is to recall these ideas. Eventually, new knowledge
that previously required a lot of effort to implement
becomes quick and intuitive. So lets review the main
points we covered in the book!

Changing your everyday behavior

1. Planning properly with schedules, charts, and
outlines sets you up to be productive. Preparation
ensures discipline and provides the structure for
future success.
2. Setting daily goals gives you a endpoint to march
to each day. Splitting up larger tasks into micro-
tasks lays out the waypoints along the road to your
goal. Micro-tasks are also built-in progress meters
and provide you with the small victories each day
which will fuel you to your larger daily goal.
3. Staying in shape and being systematic about your
fitness ensures that your mind is firing on all cylin-
ders. Your mind and the cognitive power you bring
to the fight each day is connected to the overall
health of your body.

70
Getting better over time
4. Self-knowledge is the key to unlocking your moti-
vation. The more you understand about your de-
sires and what youre passionate about, the more
likely you are to find work that is naturally fulfilling.
5. The more you practice, the easier tough tasks
become. Being deliberate about practice and work-
ing on the skills you know you need to become
successful requires a gritty approach. As you learn
via practice, things that were once hard become
second nature. Also recognize that you can work
at something that youre good at, but maybe not
passionate about, to create time and space for your
passions.
6. Measuring your time use (and misuse) is the first
step to identifying ways to make yourself more ef-
ficient and to acknowledge problems associated
with procrastination and time waste.
7. Regulating your unproductive wants and desires is
hard enough -- and unnecessarily harder if those
things are constantly staring you in the face. If
youre dieting, would you find it helpful to put a
chocolate cake on your dining table? Use tools and
techniques to make it easier for you to exercise
self-control, which will give you the time and space
to get stuff done.

71
Set yourself up to be successful
8. There are lots of ways to take the small annoy-
ances out of your life like waiting in long lines at
the grocery store where only a single cashier is on
duty. Streamline these things away with services
like Amazon Prime, Blue Apron, and Dollar Shave
Club.
9. Controlling and optimizing your sensory environ-
ment can go a long to way helping you get stuff
done. Getting into a flow state, when you hardly
even notice that youre working hard, is easier
when theres ambient noise. Changing up your
work scenery can make you more productive as
well.

Cut out the noise and focus

10. Do you ever feel like you spend half your day on
email? You might be receiving a lot of email be-
cause you send a lot of email! Being more efficient
in your communications, by employing multi-modal
means (e.g., pick up the phone every once in
awhile) means freeing up time to get more stuff
done.
11. Meetings can be terribly inefficient. If the meeting
doesnt have an agenda that involves you, if no de-
cisions are going to be made, and if you dont have
anything to contribute, dont go!

72
 12. Do more than one thing at a time by pairing effortful
tasks, such as listening to an educational podcast,
with cognitively simple work, like doing chores. But
know and acknowledge the limits of multitasking:
youre worse at it than you realize and doing two
effortful things simultaneously makes you worse at
both things. Cutting down on interruptions such as
email notifications helps too.
13. Sometimes you hit a point of diminishing returns
and it is better to recharge than to push ahead.
Know your limits and know when to come back to a
task! Also know that you cant go on forever at the
same pace -- being smart about breaks and vaca-
tions means being able to be productive for longer
periods of time.
14. Procrastination is often rooted in fear of failure or
disappointment. But that chronic fear will translate
into a complete lack of results if left unchecked.
Beat procrastination by just doing: whether it be
reading, writing, running etc. regardless of whether
it is good enough. Everyones first draft is rough,
but the key is not to let that hold you back.

The Big One

15. Finally, never give up! By following the above
principles, youll be able to both work smarter and
harder.

73
Thank You

Thanks for taking the time to read this e-book! I hope

youve enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writ-
ing it. In the meantime, please email me at welton.
chang@groveave.co with your stories and tips. I love
hearing about how other people are increasing their
productivity. If youve used any of the principles and
gotten positive results, Id love to hear that too! If you
want, head on over to groveave.co for more. You
might find them helpful as well! Now, whatre you wait-
ing for? Go get productive!

74
Further Reading and Listening
Did you like what you read here? Want to go deeper
into boosting your productivity? Here are some books
weve read and recommend.

Motivation & Perseverance

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates
World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
by Geoff Colvin
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm
Gladwell
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
by Angela Duckworth
Toughness: Developing True Strength On and
Off the Court by Jay Bilas

Learning & Improving

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by
Carol Dweck
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About
When, Where, and Why It Happens by Ben
Carey

Fitness
The Four-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss

75
Efficiency & Productivity
The Four-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being
Productive in Life and Business by Charles
Duhigg
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our
Success by Adam Grant
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a
Distracted World by Cal Newport

Decision-making & Behavorial Psychology

Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions
by Gary Klein
Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert
The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and
Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing

Ideas & Insights

Seeing What Others Dont: The Remarkable
Ways We Gain Insights by Gary Klein
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural
History of Innovation by Steven Johnson

Life Lessons & Approaches to Living Life

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern
Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived,
76
 Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale
Carnegie

Here are some podcasts that we enjoy listening to

regularly.

Podcasts
TED Radio Hour
The Tim Ferriss Show
Smart Passive Income by Pat Flynn
Philosophize This! by Stephen West
EconTalk by Russ Roberts

77
Sources
Introduction
Profile of Tom Bradys meticulous routine by
Katherine Landergan, Boston Globe
https://www.bostonglobe.com/
sports/2014/12/12/tom-brady-me-
ticulous-health-regimen-revealed-
article/4VpDoru88XQj7FxpKIQwIK/story.html
Rags to riches story of JK Rowling by Rachel
Gillett, Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-rags-to-
riches-story-of-jk-rowling-2015-5

Principle 1: Proper planning and organiza-

tion sets the table for productivity
More details about backwards planning by Mike
Martel, Lifehack
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/
successful-backward-planning.html
Gantt Charts by Mindtools
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/
newPPM_03.htm
Different Gantt Chart programs
http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/tools-gantt-
chart/
Google Keep
https://www.google.com/keep/
People who wear the same thing every day by
Drake Baer, Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/barack-obama-

78
 mark-zuckerberg-wear-the-same-outfit-2015-4

Principle 2: Set daily goals and split up larg-

er tasks into micro-tasks
How to write an e-book in 30 days by Ali Luke,
Copyblogger
http://www.copyblogger.com/ebook-in-30-day/

Principle 3: Stay in shape efficiently

Fit Body Fit Mind by Christopher Hertzog, Ar-
thur F. Kramer, Robert S. Wilson, Ulman Linden-
berger, Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fit-
body-fit-mind/
Mens Journal Guide: The Only Eight Moves You
Need to Be Fit
http://www.mensjournal.com/expert-advice/the-
only-8-moves-you-need-to-be-fit-20140306
Pull ups-- the best exercise in the World by Mi-
lan Stolicny, Six Pack and No Regrets
http://www.milanstolicny.com/pull-ups-the-best-
exercise-in-the-world/
Get a door pullup bar here:
http://amzn.to/1Mja6jM
Run to stay young by Gretchen Reynolds, NY
Times
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/run-to-
stay-young/?_r=0
Serial podcast
https://serialpodcast.org/
How Many Miles a Week Should I Run? by
Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times

79
 http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/ask-
well-how-many-miles-a-week-should-i-run/
Reddit beginner guide to getting fit
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/getting_
started

Principle 4: Understand yourself to find your

motivation
The Puzzle of Motivation by Dan Pink, TED
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_
motivation?language=en
Motivate yourself by appealing to your intrinsic
motivation by Marelisa Fabrega, Daring to Live
Fully
http://daringtolivefully.com/intrinsic-motivation
Buy Experiences Not Things by James Hamblin,
The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/ar-
chive/2014/10/buy-experiences/381132/
Change and Habituation by Shahram Heshmat,
Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sci-
ence-choice/201412/change-and-habituation
The Passion Trap by Cal Newport
http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/10/16/the-pas-
sion-trap-how-the-search-for-your-lifes-work-is-
making-your-working-life-miserable/

80
Principle 5: Practice and grit make things
easier and help you achieve flow
The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisi-
tion of Expert Performance by K. Anders Erics-
son, Ralf Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer,
Psychological Review
http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDelib-
eratePracticePR93.pdf
The Key To Success? Grit by Angela Duckworth,
TED
https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duck-
worth_the_key_to_success_grit?language=en
You can train yourself to have grit by Jessica
Stillman, Inc.com
http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/you-can-
train-yourself-to-have-more-grit.html
Flow the secret to happiness by Mihaly Csik-
szentmihalyi, TED
https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmih-
alyi_on_flow?language=en

Principle 6: Track your time use and shift it

towards productive things
RescueTime
https://www.rescuetime.com/
Time Management for Effective Executives by
Peter Drucker
http://riversidebusinesscoach.com/2012/02/
time-management-for-effective-manager-druck-
ers-the-effective-executive-3/
11 Things Every Entrepreneur Must Outsource to
Survive by Neil Patel, Inc.com

81
 http://www.inc.com/neil-patel/11-things-every-
entrepreneur-must-outsource-to-survive.html
How To E-mail Virtual Assistants by Tim Ferriss
http://fourhourworkweek.com/category/out-
sourcing-life/
How to get your virtual assistant to schedule
your doctors appointments by Ramit Sethi
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/
how-to-get-your-virtual-assistant-to-schedule-
your-doctors-appointments/

Principle 7: Self-control doesnt come easy

set yourself up for success
Self-control on Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/self-
control
Stayfocused Chrome Extension
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/
stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji
?hl=en

Principle 8: Streamline your life by automat-

ing
What I dont buy by Welton Chang, Buys with
Friends
http://www.buyswithfriends.com/what-i-dont-
buy/

82
Principle 9: Control and optimize your sen-
sory environment
Why Ambient Noise Makes You More Produc-
tive (And Three Apps That Do It Right) by Tyler
Hayes, FastCoLabs
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3015970/why-am-
bient-noise-makes-you-more-productive-and-
three-apps-that-do-it-right
Noisli App
http://www.noisli.com/
Dr Krishnans Stress Curve
http://image.slidesharecdn.com/dr-
140927202023-phpapp01/95/drkrishnans-
stress-management-7-638.jpg?cb=1411849317
Change up your study space for better reten-
tion by Kevin Purdy, Lifehacker
http://lifehacker.com/5631680/change-up-your-
study-spaces-for-better-recall

Principle 10: Be efficient with your communi-

cations
Is Email Evil by Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ar-
chive/2015/11/kill-email-die-email/415419/
Stop Leaving Tasks Half-Finished With the
One-Touch Rule by Tori Reid, Lifehacker
http://lifehacker.com/stop-leaving-tasks-half-
finished-with-the-one-touch-ru-1626933101

83
Principle 11: Avoid unnecessary meetings
How to get out of an unnecessary meeting by
Jayson Demers, Inc.com
http://www.inc.com/jayson-demers/how-to-get-
out-of-an-unnecessary-meeting.html
15 Productivity Tips from Legendary Business-
men, Askmen.com
http://www.askmen.com/grooming/inspira-
tion/15_productivity-tips-from-legendary-busi-
nessmen.html

Principle 12: Do more than one thing at

once, but know the limits of multitasking
Jim Holts Review of Thinking, Fast and Slow by
Daniel Kahneman
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/books
review/thinking-fast-and-slow-by-daniel-kahne-
man-book-review.html?_r=0
Why Multi-Tasking is Killing your Brain by Larry
Kim, Inc.com
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/why-multi-tasking-
is-killing-your-brain.html
12 Reasons to Stop Multitasking Now! by Aman-
da MacMillan, Health
http://www.health.com/health/gal-
lery/0,,20707868,00.html
How to train your brain to multi-task effectively
by Nadia Goodman, Entrepreneur
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225865
How to stop to-do lists ruining your life by Han-
nah Marriot, The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/

84
 aug/10/how-to-stop-to-do-lists-ruining-your-life

Principle 13: Know when to take a break,

when to walk away, and when to relax
Let it marinate, the importance of reflection and
closing by Joshua Block
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/let-it-marinate-
reflection-closing-joshua-block
Headspace.com for meditation
https://www.headspace.com/
Why Do Our Best Ideas Come To Us In the
Shower? by Lucas Reilly, MentalFloss
http://mentalfloss.com/article/52586/why-do-
our-best-ideas-come-us-shower

Principle 14: Procrastination isnt about fear

of work, it is about fear of disappointment
The Attentional Drift-Diffusion Model Extends to
Simple Purchasing Decisions by Ian Krajbich et
al.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC3374478/
Temporal discounting in Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_dis-
counting
Put Off Procrastinating!! by Dr Lisa Saulsman
and Paula Nathan
http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/docs/Procras-
tination%20Module%202_Understanding%20
Part%202.pdf and http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.
au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=50

85
 Why Procrastinators Procrastinate by Tim Urban
http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-pro-
crastinators-procrastinate.html
How to Beat Procrastination by Tim Urban
http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-pro-
crastination.html
Teaching Talk: Helping Students Who Procrasti-
nate (Tim Pychyl)
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=mhFQA998WiA

86
Copyright 2016 Grove Ave Inc.
Cover image from Unsplash.com
Book design and production by Peter Kang
Author photograph by Welton Chang

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that
the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and pub-
lisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any
loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such
errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

87
88